§ 8.01-567.What defense may be made to attachments.

Attachment cases can involve several kinds of participants, and this section tailors the available defenses to each one’s role. Any party in interest can challenge the court’s basic authority to hear the case at all — a jurisdictional defense open to everyone. A principal defendant who has not been served can go further, appearing specially just to argue that the attachment itself was issued on a false suggestion or without sufficient cause, which, if successful, gets the whole attachment quashed.

The deepest defense belongs to the principal defendant and to anyone claiming title to, an interest in, or a lien on the attached property who has been admitted as a party. They can contest the underlying claim on the merits, using any defense that would work in an ordinary lawsuit, argue that the attachment was not issued on any ground listed in § 8.01-534, or argue that the plaintiff is unlikely to succeed on the merits at all. The principal defendant can also raise counterclaims or defenses available under § 8.01-422, just as in a regular action at law. Everyone else named as a defendant, though, is boxed in more tightly — limited to defenses personal to themselves, or defenses that would keep liability from attaching to them or their own property.